Various means for stiffening and shaping brassiere cups and other women's foundation garments, undergarments and bathing suits have been disclosed in the art. As one example, metal or rigid thermoplastic underwires formed into a U-shape are encased in fabric or foam and extend around the lower peripheral portion of a brassiere cup or bathing suit top to provide lifting support. Such wires can cause wearer discomfort in many instances. First, a sharp end of the wire can protrude through the fabric covering and poke the wearer. Second, the rigidity of the formed wire frequently does not conform to the curvature of the wearer's torso. Hence, as the wearer moves, the underwire portion of the garment does not stay in comfortable contact with the wearer's torso. Third, prior art supports generally have a constant diameter (or width) and thickness along their length, which can contribute to their inability to conform more closely to the curvature of the wearer's body and to shape the same.
Some molded brassiere cups include auxiliary support patches adhered to fabric to form a laminate structure that is introduced into the mold for forming the brassiere cup. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,172,002 and 4,371,321 suggest forming a support patch or reinforcement support with a moldable fabric compatible with the fabric used to mold the brassiere cup. The support is fused with a hot melt adhesive to the fabric that ultimately forms the brassiere cup during the molding step.
Some brassieres and girdles incorporate other thermoplastic materials as stiffening supports, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,067 and WO 01/08516 A1. When such stiffening supports are sewn into the construction, they suffer from many of the same drawbacks associated with underwires. These bonded thermoplastic supports in the prior art have not addressed the problems associated with rolling when the garment does not conform comfortably to the curvature of the wearer's torso. Either the thermoplastic support lacks sufficient stiffness to hold a desired body-shaping configuration or the fabric components of the garment fold or roll over the support.